Promise of Joy

by Allen Drury

  (“You see?” Walter Dobius demanded of Frankly Unctuous as they sat together in front of a television set in the Senate Press Gallery, surrounded by respectful colleagues. “Right away, the blind, chauvinist appeal.” “Imperialism dies hard,” Frankly agreed in his customary profound and portentous manner.)

  “You all know the reasons why we are engaged militarily in Gorotoland and Panama.

  “In Gorotoland, American missionaries were wantonly murdered and American interests were wantonly attacked by Communist-backed rebel forces.

  “In Panama, Communist-backed rebel forces are attempting to overthrow the legitimate government and capture the Canal.

  “In both places, my predecessors, President Harley M. Hudson and President William Abbott, felt that the imperative interests of the United States and the independent world were at stake, and that we must intervene. Even aside from the direct attack upon the nationals and the interests of this country, Gorotoland is the strategic heart of the African continent. We cannot let it fall to Communist control: therefore we are there. The Panama Canal is one of the jugulars of the world’s commerce. We cannot let it fall to Communist control: therefore we are there.”

  (“How’s that for gunboat diplomacy?” they demanded at the Pimes. “At least the bastard is being honest about it,” they said with savage irony at the Tost. “Thank the Lord for small favors.”)

  “You will remember”—the President said with a certain savage irony of his own—“at least, some of you will remember, even though many members of the media seem to have forgotten—”

  (“That’s right!” they snapped at CBS, NBC and ABC. “Blame the God-damned media!”)

  “—that when I came into office, scarcely forty-eight hours ago, the battlefields had been quiet for several months. During this period of stalemate, President Abbott, and I as Secretary of State, made a number of secret approaches, through many channels, to Moscow and Peking, offering substantial concessions to bring about the start of genuine negotiations. All of these attempts were rebuffed. The Communists for the time being did not want war—the worldwide alert ordered by President Abbott discouraged them from that desire—and they did not want peace. Stalemate seemed to suit their purposes, and stalemate was what they deliberately maintained.

  “It seemed to me that my inauguration, providing as all inaugurations do something of a clean slate, a new beginning, a fresh approach to problems which never change but which can sometimes be helped by a fresh approach, offered the opportunity for some dramatic new move.” His expression for a moment became wry, then hardened again. “It evidently appeared this way to the Communist powers also. There was, however, one difference. I thought it provided the opportunity for peace. They saw it as providing the opportunity for new war.

  “My own course, in any event, seemed clear-cut to me. In the concluding moments of my Inaugural Address, I issued a public invitation to the leaders of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China to meet with me in Geneva to settle these and other outstanding issues jeopardizing the general peace. I issued this invitation in entire sincerity and good faith, in the hope that it would break the logjam that continues to cripple humanity, as it has for more than four weary decades, interrupted only by a few so-called ‘détentes’ abandoned as soon as it suited the Communists.

  “I suspect that not even those certain members of the media—”

  (“Boy, is he hostile!” they exclaimed at the Tost. “I really don’t know why,” they told one another, quite genuinely puzzled, at the Pimes.)

  “—have forgotten what happened next.

  “Instead of an honest, honorable, cooperative reply to my invitation, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China launched an immediate sneak attack on American forces in the two countries. I must tell you, in all candor”—his expression became somber—“that so far, these sneak attacks are meeting with considerable success. American forces have been pushed back, American positions have been seriously threatened. There have been some casualties—not many—except that one is too many.

  “I have had two courses open to me in response. I could withdraw American forces and sue for peace—in other words, surrender. Or I could attempt to maintain our positions, in the hope that a vigorous and undismayed response would persuade the Communist powers that we mean business and do not intend to be driven out.

  “This latter course seemed to me the only one consistent with our desire for peace.”

  (“‘Peace’!” Walter Dobius echoed with a bitter sarcasm. “What a mockery,” Frankly Unctuous agreed.)

  “The only way, I believe,” the President said, “to persuade the Communist powers that we have no intention of running, but do desire to negotiate seriously, is to remain in place, if we can, until they have decided that this latest aggression on their part is not going to produce the American collapse they desire. Once they are convinced of that, I believe we can talk. But not,” he said firmly, “until then.”

  He paused, took a drink of water, resumed gravely, looking straight into the cameras.

  “I say ‘if we can’ remain in place, because I do not believe that this is any time for your President to be less than candid with you. It is not easy at this moment, and it is not going to be easy in the days and weeks ahead.

  “The sneak attack caught us at a disadvantage, even though we have substantial forces and matériel on site in both Gorotoland and Panama. More must be supplied. The counter-pressure must be maintained if meaningful negotiations are to come about. Past history, in Vietnam and elsewhere, shows that such negotiations only happen when the Communists face matching strength. They never happen when the Communists face weakness—then negotiations mean nothing but camouflaged surrender to the Communist position.

  “There is also one other reason for maintaining pressure, even though it seems remote, and that is that there might conceivably be some rift in the apparent unity with which the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China are cooperating. They have never cooperated before, certainly never on a military venture. There is a remote possibility that something may conceivably happen between them if we remain firm.”

  (“How’s that for being a junior-grade Machiavelli?” they asked one another at the Pimes. “There isn’t a single low-down trick he won’t use when he gets desperate, is there?” they asked one another at the Tost.).

  “We cannot, however, depend on that remote possibility. We must depend on ourselves and on the historical truism that one can only negotiate with the Communists from strength, never from weakness. We must stay strong, and we must endure. Then in due course we may hope that we will be able to achieve meaningful negotiations that will look toward peace not only in Panama and Gorotoland, but in other areas of the world as well.

  “To stay strong, however”—and his tone became thoughtful almost conversational—“we need the foundations of strength. And the foundations of strength only you, the American people, working your will through your Congress—”

  “Here it comes, now!” the Speaker exclaimed as they sat watching in the Majority Leader’s private office just down the hall from the main Senate door. “It won’t do him any good,” the Majority Leader said with a flat certainty.)

  “—can provide. I hope you will do so.

  “In my Inaugural Address, aware of the state of American forces, which in some areas leaves much to be desired after the legislative depredations of recent years, I announced that I would send to the Congress a request for an emergency ten-billion-dollar supplement to the funds for the Department of Defense. The events of night before last, events which still continue in Gorotoland and Panama, make this even more imperative. Accordingly, I submitted the request to both houses yesterday morning.

  “It is apparent already that there is substantial, and, I believe, ill-informed, opposition to this request. Some of it, particularly from new members, is genuinely ignorant of the exact state of our armed forces. Some of it is dominated by long-standing a
nimosity toward me personally. Some of it is designed to curry favor with certain influential elements in America who are desperately afraid to face up to the obligation to act which would be imposed upon them if they actually admitted the true nature of the Communist threat.

  “All of these forces have combined to slow down, already, the momentum which a request of such urgency, in such a time of crisis, should receive at the hands of the Congress.

  “Therefore,” he said, and he looked with a particular intensity into the cameras as though he could hold the eyes of each individual listener among his country’s diverse millions, “I am appealing to you this morning to assist me in persuading the Congress to act favorably on this issue which is, I believe, of absolute desperate necessity to the well-being and actual survival of the United States.

  “I appeal to you to make your wishes known. Telephone, send wires, send letters—and do so at once. We face a desperate crisis in the world and we must see it through to a conclusion which will save ourselves, and save mankind, from a catastrophic disaster that would make peace forever impossible.”

  An even greater earnestness entered his voice.

  “We must remain strong. We must discharge our obligations in the two war areas overseas. We must continue to press for negotiations from strength. It is the only way we can ever achieve them, and through them, achieve a lasting world peace.”

  He appeared for a second to conclude. Then he laid aside his papers and leaned forward, and now he was talking to them person to person, informally, in their own living rooms or wherever they might be.

  “Last night, shortly before midnight, my son Hal and daughter-in-law Crystal came to me in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House, where I was getting ready for bed.”

  (“Oh, oh!” they chortled at the Tost. “Hit the Maudlin Button, everybody!” they gurgled at the Pimes.)

  “My son Hal, as you know, is a newly elected member of the House of Representatives. My daughter-in-law Crystal lost her first child as a result of a beating by members of the National Anti-War Activities Congress at the national convention last August.

  “Now my daughter-in-law tells me that she is pregnant again, and she and my son, deeply worried like all of us by the events of the past forty-eight hours, asked me what I intended to do, and what I could offer them in the way of assurance to help them through these difficult days.

  “What I said, essentially, was this:

  “Long ago, when I first entered public life as a member of the lower house of the Illinois legislature, I agreed with”—there was an almost imperceptible hesitation—“my late wife that whatever I had to face as a public servant I would do my best to face with honesty, with courage and with integrity. We agreed that I would do this even if it meant my political career, even if it meant the end of all the dreams and hopes of myself and my family.

  “I think I have remained generally true to that, over all these years, and I hope my friends among you will be satisfied, as I am, that I have been generally able to keep that pledge made so long ago.

  “Up to the moment when I took my oath as President, however”—and his tone became somber as it had with his children the night before—“I was staking only my own fortunes and those of my family on this personal standard. Now, much, much more is involved. Now—and I do not say this to shock or frighten you, but because it is true—I literally hold the fate of the country in my hands—and even more. Now—in a sense that sounds maudlin because it is so terribly true—I hold in my hands the fate of all mankind, and that of the whole wide world. And so, of course, do the leaders of Russia, and the leaders of China.

  “I believe, however,” he said quietly, “that the basic principle still holds. I think I still must try to do what I believe right, as honestly, courageously and with as much integrity, as I can.

  “I hope that when all is said and done, this will be seen to have been the right and only course to follow.…

  “This does not mean,” he said gravely, and even his bitterest opponents were quiet among themselves in the face of the naked honesty with which he was taking them into his confidence, “that there will be any easy answers, or any easy path to go down. It does not mean that there will be comfortable solutions or a smooth way out. It doesn’t even mean that I will succeed in the course I believe to be right.

  “I may”—his eyes looked far away, but his expression did not waver—“I may destroy the whole globe. I can do it—any President can, in this age of horrible weapons and instant war, just as any leader of Russia, or any leader of China, or any leader of any smaller power who wants to precipitate world disaster, can do it.

  “I would hope that the collective common sense of mankind will prevent that outcome, but it may not.

  “Certainly it will not if that collective common sense is not applied as severely to Russia and China as it is being applied to us, in the United Nations and elsewhere.…

  “So, then”—and again his gaze became intent and concentrated, so that many felt he was speaking directly, and only, to them—“I can’t promise you—I can’t promise anyone—that the course I have chosen, the course of strength and firmness, will succeed. About all I can give you is the modest hope that maybe if we do right and are unafraid, right will prevail, and humanity will prevail.

  “That is all I can offer: no certainty, but a modest hope. I need your help, I need your support, if that hope is to be achieved. Give it to me, and I say to you: be of good faith, and be not afraid. Together we will win through.”

  And he sat back, and for a long moment, while the national anthem began and his firm, emphatic face, flanked by the American flag and the flag of the President, faded slowly from the screen, there was silence among all his friends and all his enemies, all who had heard him in his own land, and all around the globe.

  But not, of course, for long.

  Knox says he can destroy world. Defies U.S. and world peace sentiment, pledges all-out fight in Gorotoland, Panama. Asks country to pressure congress to assure passage of ten-billion arms bill. Admits course may not succeed but offers “modest hope.” Seeks to drive wedge between Russ and Chinese.

  Moscow, Peking denounce speech as “mouthings of madman … futile imperialist maneuver to destroy unity of world revolutionary movement.” Pledge continued all-out drive to “stop U.S. insanity everywhere.” World capitals dismayed by president’s belligerence. Many see end to all hopes for peace.

  Congress refuses to debate arms buildup despite attempts by Abbott, Munson to force issue to floor in both houses. Senate leader announces cabinet appointments will be delayed “until this war madness in the White House comes to an end.” White house claims telegrams running “two to one” for president, but hill leaders give opposite picture.

  New emergency meeting of security council renews demand U.S. withdraw, directs Knox to meet “forthwith” with Soviets and Chinese. President immediately rejects “insolent and one-sided attempt to force the hand of the American government.” General Assembly resolution urges un members to use “every military and economic weapon at their command” against U.S.…people’s Republic of Saudi Arabia leads six communist mideast oil states in immediate embargo on all shipments to U.S.

  Reds make new gains on battlefields. U.S. correspondents say American supplies dangerously low. NAWAC leads massive peace demonstrations in Washington, other major cities.

  And now here the slimy bastards were on his own front stoop, the Vice President thought with a bitter annoyance as his chauffeured limousine turned in the drive of the modest home he and Sarah were still occupying, up Sixteenth Street. They would be moving in a week to the quarters at the old Naval Observatory on Massachusetts Avenue which Congress had finally provided for the Vice President after a couple of centuries of careful consideration, but for now it was still the old homestead, where he and Sue-Dan had gone through the final agonies of their mismatched marriage, and where he had undergone more than one bitter clash with at least one of the individuals
who waited for him now.

  He had come home early because the Senate, having slapped down the President’s request for speed on the Defense Department emergency appropriation, and having compounded the defiance by deliberately holding up speedy confirmation of the Cabinet, had then gone into a three-day recess, presumably to give the President time to think about it. Lord knew he was thinking about it, and his thoughts were not very friendly to the body whose presiding officer he had become. It was also apparent, after several sharp arguments over parliamentary procedure between himself and Arly Richardson, and himself and several of the new young members who were egging Arly on, that many in the Senate were not thinking very friendly thoughts about him, either. He was the principal symbol of the Knox Administration on the Senate side, and as such was obviously bearing the brunt of a lot of the antagonism over Orrin’s policies. He did not really mind this, since he believed in them; but being by nature one who usually liked people and liked to get along with them, he was finding it a strain. And, he knew, there would be a lot more to come.

  But that it had to enter his own house was something he resented intensely. In fact, when Sarah had come home from her first meeting of the Senate Ladies’ Club to hear from faithful old Maudie about the ominous phone call she had received, and had then called him, much upset, he had exploded with a wrath far from his easygoing manner.

  “God damn it!” he had exclaimed, making his secretary jump. “Why the hell can’t that trash come and see me here, in the open, instead of sneaking around behind people’s backs? I guess,” he had added dourly, answering his own question, “it’s because that’s the only way they know how to operate, behind people’s backs.… I want you to be witness, Darletta”—his voice took on a sarcastic singsong as he listed the titles—“Mr. LeGage Shelby, chairman of Defenders of Equality for You—??? DEEFY—and Mr. Rufus Kleinfert, Knight Kommander of the Konference on Efforts to Encourage Patriotism—KEEP—and Senator—ex-Senator Van Ackerman, thank the Lord, chairman of the Committee on Making Further Offers for a Russian Truce—COMFORT—and also and incidentally, chairman of great old NAWAC—are coming to my house in half an hour. I don’t know what they want, but knowing that trash, I imagine it isn’t anything nice.”